Projects and Initiatives

The electric system improvements to Ann Arbor region will enhance the reliability of electric service to the area and create additional capacity to support growth throughout the region. Construction continues on schedule and is anticipated to be completed by early 2019.

Projects and Initiatives

Our Customers

ITC Holdings Inc. and CIPCO share an integrated system area in Iowa to transmit electricity to residents in both rural and urban areas. Gary Slaby, vice president utility operations for CIPCO, details the partnership and its benefits.

Our Customers

A Modern Power Grid

WIRES recently applauded the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to proceed on Grid Resiliency, asserting that a robust transmission grid offers resource diversity and operational flexibility that is critically important to prevent, mitigate and recover from service disruptions.

A Modern Power Grid

Operational Excellence

ITC’s operational excellence continues as it recorded a .5 incident rate in 2017 compared to the EEI average of 1.5. The lost work day rate at .15 was also considerably lower than the EEI average of .45.

Operational Excellence

Community Approach

ITC partnered with the Michigan Science Center to host a special Arbor Day program for students throughout Michigan. The program will highlight the museum’s new ECHO Distance Learning Program that uses video conferencing to connect classrooms to a museum educator in real time.

Operations and Maintenance

Preventative system maintenance is a critical component of reliability and operational excellence. Our Comprehensive Operations and Maintenance (O&M) programs bring quantifiable increases in reliability and efficiency to ensure a high-performing system.

ITC achieved 100 percent compliance with maintenance requirements under NERC standards in an audit of ITC’s three operating companies.

Operation and Maintenance expenditures are not investments on which ITC earns a return. Instead, they reflect the commitment of ITC to conduct its transmission business in a way that serves customers best by providing a system that works more efficiently and with greater reliability.

System Maintenance: Critical to Reliability

ITC’s aggressive and comprehensive maintenance programs help bring quantifiable increases in transmission system reliability. We target unreliable, high-maintenance equipment for upgrade or replacement with state-of-the-art units that are more dependable, more environmentally friendly and less maintenance-intensive. These efforts have contributed to a consistent pattern of fewer and shorter outages across ITC’s three operating systems.

There are four components to ITC’s maintenance practices:

Look at all individual components that ultimately affect reliability, and make sure each of those items get the right maintenance.

Complete 100 percent of the maintenance every year.

ITC has a “find it, fix-it” mentality; if some deficiency is found – fix it, so it doesn’t become a bigger problem later.

Continuous improvement is the hallmark of any good organization, looking to drive higher performance, lower costs, and better ways of taking care of this complex transmission system.

Transmission circuits with repeated outages are investigated so action can be taken to improve reliability.

This results in less reactive maintenance because preventive maintenance addresses and resolves potential issues before they cause problems.

This spring, ITC conducted its semi-annual aerial patrols of high-voltage transmission towers and lines. The helicopter patrols are conducted to provide an overall status of the overhead transmission system. They include inspections of steel towers, wood poles, conductors (wires), insulators and other equipment. Crews check for damaged or worn equipment and vegetation hazards. These patrols are a North American Electrical Reliability Corporation (NERC) requirement for ITC’s vegetation management program, support proactive maintenance objectives, and are in line with the company's model for operational excellence.

Integrated Vegetation Maintenance Program

ITC maintains an integrated vegetation management program to protect electric reliability and public safety. Trees and high voltage power lines are a hazardous combination. Tree interference with transmission lines is a leading cause of electric power outages and poses a safety threat to the public. Our society depends upon electricity, so outages or blackouts are inconvenient, costly and potentially dangerous. Proper vegetation management is essential to preventing such outages.

ITC’s twice-a-year aerial patrols of the transmission system help the company meet the federal zero-outage vegetation mandate by identifying and addressing potential vegetation threats before they can cause problems.